A couple of ferns for ID please

[AlanS]

I agree photo 1 is D. dilatata. Not quite the right habit (or habitat) for young D. carthusiana, which is more upright when it first emerges, and, crucially, the dark centres of the scales ARE just visible in the photo.

Only Blechnum visible in photo 2 so far as I can see,

Alan S

[Elean0r]

I'd thought the second was a Hard Fern. There were loads of them about, down the sides of the bank and also right at the water's edge, but I couldn't get near enough to take a picture of those - too many bends in the stream and water deeper than the top of my boots.

Some were growing under the trees, in what seemed very dry, crumbly, soil, quite a few looked as if the ends of the fronds had been eaten or broken off. It seems quite a versatile, grow almost anywhere, sort of fern.

Originally Posted by Johnny Redgate

Passes the time though doesn't it - trying to identify plants from not quite good enough photos

Sorry about that

Originally Posted by Jason Claxton

But really it needs Eleanor to go back and take a look at the tissuey light brown scales at the bottom of the plant.If they have a dark centre or central stripe,Dilatata,if there are no markings, Carthusiana.It is tougher from photies.

There speaks a true optimist!

The plant was growing out of the near vertical side of a fairly deep drainage ditch by the side of a track a couple of miles from where we live. I don't think I could easily get to the bottom of the ditch to get a closer look, and, to be honest I'm not even sure if I'd find the plant again.

I've checked the other pictures I took, and none of them show any more detail, I'm not sure if a zoomed shot is much more use.

Pretty little thing though, don't you think? It just caught my eye as I was walking past. My guess for identification was way out, so I'm not even going to say what I thought it was.

[iainL]

If you're planning on buying this it may be better to check out what it looks like later in the year. It's actually quite a robust thing from what I remember - I'm not sure that I would describe the mature fronds as either pretty or little - but that's just my opinion.

Iain